1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information receiving apparatus, a data downloading method, and an information receiving system.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-223923, filed Aug. 2, 2005, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years services have been provided for distributing television programs such as news, cartoons, dramas and music programs as moving picture data to portable terminals. In such a service, when the user registers a desired program, a reserved storage area for the distribution service is created in the storage unit of the portable terminal, and the program data are downloaded thereto. Since distribution of the program data is in principle preferably performed during a time when communications traffic is light, it is typically carried out in the late night hours while the user is asleep. The time of day at which the program data are automatically updated (automatic update time) is individually designated for each portable terminal by the information distribution server. When the automatic update time arrives, the download application in the portable terminal runs, confirms with the information distribution server whether the program has been updated, and executes the download if updated. Downloadable program data include informative programs such as news shows that are distributed daily or weekly, as well as series programs of which the number of episodes increases daily or weekly, and one-time programs that are distributed only once.
Adapting to the lifestyle patterns of users, there is known a portable terminal that can download and update data to the portable terminal during a time of day when the possibility of the user using the portable terminal is low (refer, for example, to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2004-297126).
When downloading program data such as moving picture data like animation, since downloading is performed to the reserved storage area for the distribution service located in the storage unit that is set in the potable terminal, the previously downloaded moving picture data are overwritten. For this reason, the user is required to perform an operation to transfer the moving picture data that will be deleted by overwriting to another storage area that is not tee reserved storage area or to a detachable expandable memory (such as a SD card).
However, since moving picture data are often distributed daily or weekly, this operation by the user of transferring the moving pit data to be saved to another storage area becomes very troublesome. Also, since the receiving of distribution data needs to be performed at the time designated by the information distribution server, the act of storing cannot be performed at a uniquely prescribed time as TV programs are recorded. As a result, even if downloaded moving picture data have not been replayed even once, if the operation of transferring the data is forgotten, it will be written over by the newly distributed moving picture data, with the result that the communication expense for downloading the data will be wasted.
The present invention was achieved in view of the aforementioned circumstances, and has as its object to provide an information receiving apparatus, a data downloading method, and an information receiving system.